


Tony's Quiet Time

by shinobi93



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, Sarcasm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-23
Updated: 2012-05-23
Packaged: 2017-11-05 21:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/411345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinobi93/pseuds/shinobi93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Tony loses his voice, Steve takes it upon himself to keep an eye on him and Clint can't help but appreciate the sarcasm opportunities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tony's Quiet Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is shameless fluff with very little plot. It was written because I woke up with barely any voice and my first thought was, obviously, 'fanfic!'. It wasn't meant to be as long as this, but it just keep going.  
> It's vaguely post-film, but as it was just meant to be a drabble, I didn't really worry about when it's meant to be set. There's the odd film reference in there though.

“Has Christmas come early? I don’t know what I did to deserve this. I would say helped save the world, but so did he and look where it got him.”

Clint’s words were met with a glare from Tony, mostly because he couldn’t do anything else. Well, anything that didn’t involve physical violence, and it was obvious that wouldn’t end well for him.

“Don’t be so hard on him.” Tony’s head jolted round at the sound of Natasha’s voice. His jaw dropped as if he was in a cartoon. “We should be using this time to destroy anything he’s programmed to annoy us without having to listen to his incessant whining whilst we do so.”

“You’d think he would have invented a robot for a situation like this. It would probably talk more sense than him...wait, he hasn’t, has he?” Clint thought about it. “JARVIS, are we likely to get a robot Stark coming to pester us anytime soon?”

“No, sir, Mr Stark has never envisioned being unable to speak. I doubt he’d trust a machine to replicate his usual high standard of witty conversation even if he had.” 

Tony couldn’t glare at the AI, so he settled for shooting daggers at Clint again.

“I am sorry, my friend,” Thor exclaimed. “I did not know my brother would do this to you. He appears to have decided trickery is more amusing to him than invasion.”

“I never thought I’d say this, but it seems I might finally be appreciating something that Loki has done,” Clint smirked. Luckily, at that moment Coulson, Steve and Bruce walked through the kitchen door, as Tony looked like he’d been about to launch himself at the guy and damn the consequences.

“Running on the assumption that this won’t last forever,” Phil began, not trying hard enough to suppress a smile. “Stark, you’re going to have to wait until your voice comes back. There’s not much we can do against magic. In the meantime, don’t cause too much havoc. Any of you.” He looked at Clint.

“Me, sir?” He replied in his best innocent voice. “How dare you make such insinuations?” He winked as he got up and went over to the fridge.

Phil rolled his eyes as he walked out of the room. Tony picked up the tablet on the table, tapped a couple of times and then typed out a message, before passing it to Steve to read out.

“I may be unable to speak, but I’m still able to put on the suit and kick your asses. Also, I’m not going to get a computer to read my words out, I don’t want to sound like Stephen Hawking.” Steve smiled. “I get that reference now.”

“The guy surrounds himself, and us, with robots and appliances that try and think for you, but won’t let one talk for him. Double standards. I hope JARVIS knows about this.” Clint was having too much fun.

“Yes, sir, I do, but I’m not offended. It’s quite pleasant to have some quiet for once, anyway.” 

Tony stood up, remembering that he didn’t have to sit here listening to people mock him without the ability to retort. Steve looked at him, concerned.

“Where are you going?”

Tony paused, considered what to do, and then started to act out building stuff. Clint collapsed in laughter, Bruce chuckled and Natasha smirked with a wicked glint in her eye that said that she’d never forget this.

“Oh, the workshop,” said Steve, who somehow had a straight face. He started to follow Tony out the door, who looked at him questioningly. “You can’t go on your own, you can’t even talk to your own robots.”

There was another pause, whilst Tony tried to equate his response into something more sophisticated than a head shake.

“Aww, don’t deny Cap this chance to stare at you working when you can’t make lewd comments in reply,” said Clint, who’d regained composure after his laughing fit. Steve blushed red, but Tony just looked resigned and nodded slightly, as if he realised a babysitter would be preferably to spending any more time with Clint whilst he was like this.

\- - - 

A few hours later and Tony was going crazy. He couldn’t ask JARVIS to do anything unless he stopped working and typed it out, Dummy seemed to think the silence meant he could do whatever he liked, and he couldn’t even ramble to himself out loud, as no sound came out.

Steve was sitting in the corner sketching and frequently looking up to check there wasn’t any silent trouble. Tony was trying not to think about the fact that the supersoldier seemed to be drawing him. Not when he couldn’t make a joke about it. Things were too intense between him and Steve when he couldn’t throw out a light hearted comment or two.

Something tapped at his shoulder. He turned around to find a sandwich being held out to him. Steve was smiling, as if he knew that Tony hadn’t even noticed him leave the room and so had tried to express surprise and, of course, failed. Tony smiled back, as a thank you, but found himself unable to stop. Quickly, he turned back to the table, sandwich in hand. He wanted to talk, to make casual chatter about the team or the weather or even Disney movies.

Steve interrupted his thoughts. “Why haven’t you put music on?” Because it mocks my silence, he thought, but had to settle for looking slightly pained and hoping that vaguely got across his answer. “Oh yeah, I guess it’s a bit infuriating. I hope my talking doesn’t have the same effect.” 

Tony shook his head vehemently. He scribbled on a scrap of paper and handed it over. It’s nice to have someone talking to me who isn’t laughing because I can’t reply. It was more honest than he’d normally ever be. Steve smiled again and he decided that he’d be more truthful with him if it elicited that reaction every time. Fuck, the silence was making him too introspective. Don’t go there, Stark, he told himself.

A tapping noise on the floor. Steve was wandering around, getting too close to stuff in a way that he’d scream at anyone else for doing. Well, normally he would. Now he couldn’t even squeak, whether he wanted to or not.

“Tony…” His tone was different, not berating or commanding, not the blunt way he’d said ‘Stark’ before they were actually friendly to one another, but uncertain. Tinged with nerves. “I...it’s stupid that I can’t do this when you can talk, but you’d just make a joke or something and…” 

Tony stood up, unsure whether he was going to run away or not. He tried to speak, testing it out, but nope, still no good. Steve stepped closer to him. He longed to break the silence, to make light of the situation, but at the same time, he wanted to know what would happen next.

“You’re just so...you...and I shouldn’t say anything...but...umm…” There were mere inches between them now. A flash of panic ran through Steve’s eyes and then, without warning, he leant in and kissed Tony. Suddenly, he stepped back, realising what he’d done. Tony, still dazed, knowing he couldn’t say anything even if he had any words suitable for the occasion, reached out and pulled him back.

\- - - 

A few days later, Clint, Steve, and Thor were lounging around watching trashy TV, which Clint claimed was necessary to their understanding of modern life. Thor was munching his way through a box of Pop Tarts and trying to make sense of the slang being used (unaided by the fact that Clint was purposefully telling him the wrong meanings for them).

Tony stumbled in and collapsed on top of Steve. He still couldn’t speak, but Steve had finally trusted JARVIS to keep an eye on him because even he needed sleep.

“Don’t you think it’s funny that you have to be silent before anybody’s interested in you? Perhaps something you should make permanent.” Clint remarked, still not bored of the opportunities Tony’s inability to talk created, especially not after he’d found out about him and Steve.

“Shut up Barton. I’m sure Coulson only puts up with you because letting you mess up a relationship with anyone else would be a lot of paperwork for him.” 

Everyone stared. Tony bolted upright, a huge grin on his face, and pulled Steve hurriedly out of the room.

Clint sighed. “I definitely preferred it when he couldn’t speak.”


End file.
